So the first thing I needed to do was prime the can to accept the enamel paint. Rustoleum is my brand of choice. Two coats overall, applied with a 3" house painting brush and rolled over with small synthetic roller to eliminate the brushstrokes. Now instead of an all silver can, we have an all white primed can, which is at right. Hooray!
The day after I primed the can, I started the sketching and drawing. The client asked that the can reference modern beer cans, but not any one brand specifically. Kind of an amalgam of beer can graphics; the "name" of the beer is the name of the bar (Cans).
After taking some pics of cans in the cooler at the local liquor store, buying a six-pack of PBR and surfing the net for beer can logos, I had enough beer can imagery compiled. I started by doing some thumbnails and working out which graphics would work best in my generic 'every beer' can. Once I felt like I knew where I was going with the design, I measured out a piece of newsprint to match the dimensions of the surface area of the can and started sketching.
I roughly sketched in any of the text components just so that I could measure the size of each piece. The Cans logo needed to 4 x 8 inches for the can. So I opened up Photoshop, set my canvas size to match the size of each piece of text, and printed a low quality copy. Now I have an accurate piece of text in 1/millionith of the time it'd probably take me to paint the text by hand!
When the can is done, the can/bar will be set up on a table in front of a mirrored section of wall. So although most of the painting is being done on the back of the can, a majority of it will still be visible. For this reason the, the main graphic needs to start at the top rim/edge of the can. A portion of the can will come to rest on the table and so obviously this area doesn't need any graphics because they'd never be seen.
This project is: Commissioned- Cans Bar and Canteen- Beer Can Bar
Time this session: 3 hrs. | Total time on this project: 6hrs.
Posted at 4:48 PM on Saturday, September 27, 2003
I know, I know- you were expecting some hot grouting action on the Mosaic table, right? Well, the grouting had to be pushed back for an emergency set design / prop painting project. Ok, well maybe it's not so much an emergency as I wanted the commission. Yep...
What is this thing over on the right you ask? It's a 55 gallon steel drum- the kind that might be used in an industrial / factory type of environment to hold chemicals or oil, etc, etc... Or if you grew up in Chicago, as I did, you might remember in the days before the black, square plastic garbage cans that fill the alleyways of the city, we used to have these as garbage cans. So what am I doing to this one?
As you can see in the picture, some of the can has been cut away. A little over a 1/4 of the can was cut away by a metal fabricator (and a flat steel surface was spot-welded to the outside of the can). Normally these cans have three raised ridges around them, but now we have a nice smooth exterior surface (you'll have to take my word for it until I post more pics). Ooooo, ahhhhhh. And what are we doing to the large 3/4-whole can? Making it into an Over-sized Beer Can of course to accommodate the hippest-of-hip Bloody Mary bars! Ah yes, you want to know more about what Cans is up to don't you? More to come shortly...we're on a schedule here!
This project is: Commissioned- Cans Bar and Canteen- Beer Can Bar
Time this session: 3 hrs. | Total time on this project: 3hrs.
I know, I know- you were expecting some hot grouting action on the Mosaic table, right? Well, the grouting had to be pushed back for an emergency set design / prop painting project. Ok, well maybe it's not so much an emergency as I wanted the commission. Yep...
What is this thing over on the right you ask? It's a 55 gallon steel drum- the kind that might be used in an industrial / factory type of environment to hold chemicals or oil, etc, etc... Or if you grew up in Chicago, as I did, you might remember in the days before the black, square plastic garbage cans that fill the alleyways of the city, we used to have these as garbage cans. So what am I doing to this one?
As you can see in the picture, some of the can has been cut away. A little over a 1/4 of the can was cut away by a metal fabricator (and a flat steel surface was spot-welded to the outside of the can). Normally these cans have three raised ridges around them, but now we have a nice smooth exterior surface (you'll have to take my word for it until I post more pics). Ooooo, ahhhhhh. And what are we doing to the large 3/4-whole can? Making it into an Over-sized Beer Can of course to accommodate the hippest-of-hip Bloody Mary bars! Ah yes, you want to know more about what Cans is up to don't you? More to come shortly...we're on a schedule here!
This project is: Commissioned- Cans Bar and Canteen- Beer Can Bar
Time this session: 3 hrs. | Total time on this project: 3hrs.
Posted at 11:01 PM on Thursday, September 25, 2003
As I mentioned in the last post, I left off with only four more tiles to place. I tried laying quite a few different colors that hadn't been used anywhere else in the design- and I just wasn't sold on the idea. I know that I've mentioned this before, and I probably will again and again, but I prefer limited color palettes. The harmony is a big selling point with me; I know that's entirely a preference thing. Often I'll see a painting in which the artist has seemingly (by my estimation) used every color he owns, some people call it 'lively' or 'energetic'- I call it garish.
After the four tiles were set, I took out the trusty Craftsman rotary tool, attached a glass grinding bit and ground down the edge the tiles that comprise the edge of the table. I felt this needed to be done because the mosaic isn't inset; ceramic tile is sharp enough, glass...well, its glass! It's sharp! So a little grinding and we don't have any sharp edge worries. So next comes the grout...
I actually finished creating the tattoo gallery; I'm not sure why I ended up creating that gallery first. Anyway, I decided that I'm not going to launch them one at a time, rather I'm going to wait until they're all finished. So wait for it! Wow, I broke a 1000 visits...
This project is: Private Commission- K. Leja- Mosaic table top
Time this session: 0.75 hrs. | Total time on this project: ~ 13.50hrs.
As I mentioned in the last post, I left off with only four more tiles to place. I tried laying quite a few different colors that hadn't been used anywhere else in the design- and I just wasn't sold on the idea. I know that I've mentioned this before, and I probably will again and again, but I prefer limited color palettes. The harmony is a big selling point with me; I know that's entirely a preference thing. Often I'll see a painting in which the artist has seemingly (by my estimation) used every color he owns, some people call it 'lively' or 'energetic'- I call it garish.
After the four tiles were set, I took out the trusty Craftsman rotary tool, attached a glass grinding bit and ground down the edge the tiles that comprise the edge of the table. I felt this needed to be done because the mosaic isn't inset; ceramic tile is sharp enough, glass...well, its glass! It's sharp! So a little grinding and we don't have any sharp edge worries. So next comes the grout...
I actually finished creating the tattoo gallery; I'm not sure why I ended up creating that gallery first. Anyway, I decided that I'm not going to launch them one at a time, rather I'm going to wait until they're all finished. So wait for it! Wow, I broke a 1000 visits...
This project is: Private Commission- K. Leja- Mosaic table top
Time this session: 0.75 hrs. | Total time on this project: ~ 13.50hrs.
Posted at 7:57 PM on Thursday, September 18, 2003
Holy oh my cow! The tiling is nearly done! Can you believe it? (Can you KL?) I know I can't. But I did say "nearly done"...Four more tiles to go, literally. I'll play around with which color will compliment the analogous color scheme we've got going on here.
After I lay in those four tiles, we'll need to clean up the edges a bit and then we can grout. A couple of friends of mine once sat against the wall of my basement, a bit inebriated. After saying the word grout aloud repeatedly to themselves, they pondered this question: "What type of animal do you think would make this sound: GRRrrrout?" The important questions must be asked...
This project is: Private Commission- K. Leja- Mosaic table top
Time this session: 1.50 hrs. | Total time on this project: ~ 12.75hrs.
Holy oh my cow! The tiling is nearly done! Can you believe it? (Can you KL?) I know I can't. But I did say "nearly done"...Four more tiles to go, literally. I'll play around with which color will compliment the analogous color scheme we've got going on here.
After I lay in those four tiles, we'll need to clean up the edges a bit and then we can grout. A couple of friends of mine once sat against the wall of my basement, a bit inebriated. After saying the word grout aloud repeatedly to themselves, they pondered this question: "What type of animal do you think would make this sound: GRRrrrout?" The important questions must be asked...
This project is: Private Commission- K. Leja- Mosaic table top
Time this session: 1.50 hrs. | Total time on this project: ~ 12.75hrs.
Posted at 10:22 PM on Thursday, September 11, 2003
Here is quadrant three...I'm using Light Blue Marbled glass in the two remaining quadrants, and before I started tiling, I realized that I needed to make sure that the parts of the Celtic design that were done with the Blue Clouds glass weren't going to 'get lost' within the Light Blue Marbled glass backgrounds. Similar hues and values- What to do?
In the first two quadrants there's no chance of the Celtic "getting lost" really, since the background glass in both quadrants is iridescent. But for the sake of variation, I didn't want all of the quadrants to be iridescent...that would be boring.
The Light Blue Marbled glass has variation: some of the pieces are a consistent light blue throughout, some are striated and then some are more of a darker, true blue all over- perfect. So rather than just randomly laying in pieces as I tiled, I've made sure to pick only the darker pieces of marbled glass whenever a piece was placed adjacent to a Blue Cloud section of the Celtic design. So essentially in the last two quadrants I'm shifting values in specific areas: all of the Blue Clouds segments of the Celtic are juxtaposed with darker pieces of the marbled glass. Check the value of the tiles in the section outlined in red.
I did some work this week on what will be the Tell.Tale.Heart Galleries section, but I'm still kind of a long way away from having them ready to post. Someday...
This project is: Private Commission- K. Leja- Mosaic table top
Time this session: 1.75 hrs. | Total time on this project: ~ 11.25hrs.
Here is quadrant three...I'm using Light Blue Marbled glass in the two remaining quadrants, and before I started tiling, I realized that I needed to make sure that the parts of the Celtic design that were done with the Blue Clouds glass weren't going to 'get lost' within the Light Blue Marbled glass backgrounds. Similar hues and values- What to do?
In the first two quadrants there's no chance of the Celtic "getting lost" really, since the background glass in both quadrants is iridescent. But for the sake of variation, I didn't want all of the quadrants to be iridescent...that would be boring.
The Light Blue Marbled glass has variation: some of the pieces are a consistent light blue throughout, some are striated and then some are more of a darker, true blue all over- perfect. So rather than just randomly laying in pieces as I tiled, I've made sure to pick only the darker pieces of marbled glass whenever a piece was placed adjacent to a Blue Cloud section of the Celtic design. So essentially in the last two quadrants I'm shifting values in specific areas: all of the Blue Clouds segments of the Celtic are juxtaposed with darker pieces of the marbled glass. Check the value of the tiles in the section outlined in red.
I did some work this week on what will be the Tell.Tale.Heart Galleries section, but I'm still kind of a long way away from having them ready to post. Someday...
This project is: Private Commission- K. Leja- Mosaic table top
Time this session: 1.75 hrs. | Total time on this project: ~ 11.25hrs.